Executive Summary

This report documents a series of grave violations of international humanitarian law, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, committed in Syria’s coastal regions. Compelling evidence reveals a systematic pattern of large-scale violence against civilians, including summary executions, torture, forced displacement, looting and destruction of property, and arbitrary dismissals—particularly targeting a specific population group identified as belonging to the Alawite sect.

These violations involved governmental forces, security personnel, local armed factions, and foreign militias allied with the new military leadership. Testimonies point to documented cases of denied burial rights, home seizures, and public humiliation of civilians—indicating a clear intent to harm specific communities based on sectarian identity. Sectarian incitement was further fueled by hate speech propagated from certain religious platforms, including public calls for jihad and mobilization broadcast by some media channels, specifically targeting the Alawite community. This played a major role in fueling sectarian strife and deepening societal divisions.

The report further documents mass killings, the burning of homes, widespread looting, mass displacement, and abductions—exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in affected areas. These developments highlight the failure of the current authority to uphold the principles of equality before the law and citizenship rights, and its continued practice of discriminatory policies based on religious and sectarian identity. These actions constitute clear violations of international standards, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, international humanitarian law, and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

The report is grounded in direct testimonies, photographs, and field data, and presents a set of urgent recommendations, including:

1. Justice and Accountability
2. Establish an independent High Commission for Transitional Justice to hold all perpetrators accountable—whether from the former or current regime—free from executive interference.
3. Form an independent international investigative committee specializing in humanitarian crimes in Syria’s coastal region and the countryside of Homs and Hama, with particular focus on enforced disappearances and the abduction of women and children.
4. Impose strict international sanctions on individuals and entities involved in acts of genocide or incitement to sectarian cleansing.
5. Prosecute members of non-Syrian extremist groups involved in incitement and killings, and remove them from official military and civilian institutions.
6. Protection and Human Rights
7. Ensure full protection for all Syrians regardless of sectarian, ethnic, or political background, to safeguard civil peace and combat hate speech.
8. Deploy permanent international monitoring missions across all Syrian territories to prevent the recurrence of massacres, particularly against religious and sectarian minorities.
9. Declare the Syrian coastal region a humanitarian disaster zone, and urge the United Nations to intervene urgently and sustainably to provide aid and support.

III. Humanitarian Aid and Safe Return

1. Expedite the delivery of medical, relief, and food assistance through international organizations, ensuring that aid is not obstructed by the current authorities.
2. Provide fair compensation to victims and their families, and ensure the safe and voluntary return of displaced civilians—especially the approximately 10,000 individuals, mostly women, children, and elderly, currently stranded at Hmeimim airbase.
3. Urge international organizations to assume their responsibilities towards Syrians in Lebanon (approximately 31,000 individuals), ensuring their safety and protection from violations.
4. Child and Women’s Rights
5. Urgently support UNICEF efforts to provide psychosocial protection for traumatized children and care for women and children affected by abduction or physical assault.
6. Media and Monitoring
7. Immediately allow access to independent media and human rights organizations to affected areas to document crimes and report the situation transparently and impartially.
8. National, Religious, and Civil Measures
9. Call upon religious leaders of all sects—especially the Fatwa Council—to issue an unequivocal condemnation of extremist fatwas and incitement rhetoric, affirming the sanctity of Syrian lives without exception or discrimination.
10. Require political and civil forces to publicly condemn acts of sectarian cleansing, considering silence as moral complicity.
11. Support the prosecution of all public figures involved in, or silent about, these crimes, deeming neutrality or complicity under such circumstances as a threat to civil peace.
12. Criminalize sectarian incitement under Syrian law and enforce penalties in accordance with international obligations, particularly the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

The international community’s failure to respond decisively to these violations perpetuates a climate of impunity and places Syria’s future justice and social cohesion at risk. Therefore, the immediate implementation of these recommendations is not only a legal necessity but also a moral imperative to prevent the recurrence of such atrocities and to lay the foundation for a state governed by the rule of law and equal citizenship